Home And Exile
Chinua Achebe
Available as Paperback, Paperback
12 March 2026
Looking back at his own life and education, this book by the giant of African literature is a deeply personal and essential key for unlocking Achebe’s literature and politics
A moving account of an exceptional life and a piercing critique of imperialism, Home and Exile is above all a book that articulates persuasively why literature matters. Achebe challenges the West’s portrayal of Africa in its culture and how this portrayal has been used to advance colonialism. Stories are a real source of power in the world, and Achebe proves that to imitate the literature of another culture is to give that power away.
Incisive, illuminating and intimate, this book by one of Africa’s most influential writers also offers readers a rare insight into his personal life and education.
“The writer in whose company the prison walls fell down”
Nelson Mandela
See more reviews
“A remarkable man … a huge inspiration”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“Delves deep into the psyche of oppressed peoples and concludes that it is vital for them to take back their own stories”
observer
“A master narrative”
new York Times Book Review
“Achebe reveals more than he has before about his parents, his education and his early career before becoming a writer”
Alastair Niven
independent
Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) was born in Nigeria and, in a long and distinguished career, has published novels, stories, essays and poems. Cited in the Sunday Times as one of the ‘1,000 Makers of the Twentieth Century’ for defining ‘a modern African literature that was truly African’ and thereby making ‘a major contribution to world literature’. Achebe has received more than 30 honorary doctorates from universities around the world. In 2007 he was awarded the Booker International Prize.
